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Ephemera:

Ephemera is a broad term used to describe items of paper that were created for use in a short time span and meant to be thrown away after one or two uses. Items generally put into the ephemera category of collecting would be sheet music, posters, stock certificates, post cards, cigarette cards, magazines, catalogs, and the like.
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Tuesday, May 18, 2010

More Memories from Madeline

This past weekend we cleaned out Madeline's home. My son spent all day Friday and Saturday in a hot attic that had served as the depository for all unwanted items for over 50 years. He threw boxes of memories down and we sorted through for treasures. We had filled a small dumpster on a previous weekend purge of the house and this weekend we filled a much larger one as well. In my home in 2010 when something in the home loses its value it goes through a filter system: first down to the storage area, then to the garage, and finally to the dump about six months later. Pretty logical, I think. I really don't understand the logic of taking the difficult route of pulling down the attic stairs and lugging the items up, knowing that they will probably stay there forever. Or until the house is sold, as is the case here. But that was a different time and I am thankful they saved some items. Our Town and Country minivan was jam packed with furniture, artwork, books, dishes, and a few boxes of memories, as well as my husband, myself, and our two large dogs. There are several more boxes of memories being stored at my husband's brother's home until we make our next trip some time this summer. I have so many memories to share with you that I'm sure I may not get to them all. Here are a few pics of the weekend:

This is the dumpster we filled. Most items in the attic were bug infested.

We dressed this gal up with my father-in-law's baby clothes. Everything was stained. The poor baby was covered in black (mold?).

This is dated Dec 1896. I cleaned a little with silver polish, but I like the old patina.

Old pewter sugar and creamer and plate. Very old.

Old postcards in a frame.

More old postcards, Thanksgiving theme.

This is the inside of the one big box that we could fit in our van this trip. There are about five more like this.

These are items from our last trip that I am still trying to organize.

So many scrapbooks like this. The cards are pasted in, however, so it is impossible to scan.

I love this! Have to find the right place to display it.

I'd better get moving and organize and blog about all this before we retrieve the other boxes! A big thank you to Andrew who gave up his weekend to help us and who I hope did not pick up any disease in that attic.

3 comments:

Wow! Have fun going through everything. I remember cleaning up my in-law's home and all the wonderful things we found. It's like a great big treasure hunt. Too bad about the things that were ruined. I love your music.

I remember filling a similar dumpster when my grandma moved out of her house. I couldn't believe how much stuff she'd accumlated. To this day, I'm constantly purging the house, because I don't want my kids to have that task some day! (Though I'm keeping the cool stuff so they can have treasures like what you've found.)

Who is Madeline?

Madeline was my mother-in-law and she saved every scrap of paper she came across in her 80 plus years on this earth. She kept scrapbooks and kept a diary her entire life. I am trying to weave these bits and pieces and pages of her life together to tell her story.

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About Me

I am a wife, mom, collie caretaker, and occasionally published writer who loves to discover old things that provide a clue to the past. I always knew my mother in law saved just about everything in her life, but never discovered how wonderful most of that was until she died. I am happy to share her memories with the world.